Opinion: Criticising the State of Israel Does Not Mean One is Being Anti-Semitics
“I utterly reject the false allegations that were published today in the New York Times advertisement taken out by the World Values Network,”
Brooklyn, NY — Bella and Gigi Hadid and Dua Lipa came under attack after speaking up in support of Palestine. They are labeled as anti-Semitics.
A recent ad in the New York Times read, “Bella, Gigi and Dua. Hamas calls for a second Holocaust. CONDEMN THEM NOW.” The NY Times received backlash for printing the ad that attacked the three women and labeled them anti-Semitics.
Let me say this first, anti-semitism is a problem and I condemn it; no one should have to fear for their life because of their religious belief. Let me also say this when you call someone anti-Semitics for speaking up for the basic human rights of Palestinians; you are erasing the existence of Palestine.
“I utterly reject the false allegations that were published today in the New York Times advertisement taken out by the World Values Network,” Dua Lipa took to Twitter and wrote after the advertisement was published on Saturday, May. 21, 2021. “The World Values Network are shamelessly using my name to advance their ugly campaign with falsehoods and blatant misrepresentations of who I am and what I stand for.”
Anti-Semitism and anti-zionism are two different things. Anti-semitism is hostility and discrimination towards Jewish people just because they are Jewish. Anti-zionism is a political ideology that opposes/criticizes the state of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians. Are there people who are anti-Semitics but also support Palestinian human rights? Yes, there are. However, they are just scapegoating their own anti-semitism through the movement to free Palestine.
The Palestinian freedom movement condemns anti-Semitics behavior and in fact, works with Jewish people in their community to fight for Palestinian human rights. Oftentimes, the 73-year-old struggle of Palestinians since 1948 seems like a conflict between two religions[Islam and Judiasm], but it is not. Israel is a settler-colonial state created by the Western countries as a sanctuary for Jews, at the cost of Palestinians being expelled from their homes and displaced and marked as second-class citizens. Palestine is home to Christian, Jews, and Muslims. However, the voices of Christian and Jewish Palestinians are ignored and it feels as though they do not exist when one talks about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Thus making it seem like a war between the two religions, Islam and Judaism.
For years, human rights activist for Palestinian liberation has been labeled as anti-Semitics to silence them. It is a tactic that continued to be used by zionists today. It is a distraction from the Palestinian liberation movement when activists have to condemn antisemitism over and over again, even though they made themselves clear before that antisemitism has no place in their fight for freedom.
People in Palestine are being systematically killed and displace and made into refugees, while people are here busy discussing whether criticizing the state of Israel anti-Semitics or not. When I say systematically, what I meant is the forceful eviction of Palestinians from their home so that someone who either in the United States or somewhere else in the world can go live there even though they already have a safe home. Also, targeting places where civilians live and justify it by saying Hamas was there. For instance, Israel destroyed a media building in Gaza and said it was because they thought Hamas was there, without any proof. “An Israeli air attack on a three-story building in Gaza City has killed eight children and two women from an extended family.” The building was near a refugee camp in Gaza.
In the recent fight between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli government targeted mostly civilian places in the Gaza Strip, killing “248, including 66 children,” wounded close to 2000 and 58,000 displaced and made homeless in 11 days of airstrikes, according to the UN. Hamas rocket barrage of rocket fire killed “at least 12 people in Israel, including two children.”
Let me leave with this scenario. Your colonizers decide they will divide the land you have called home for generations into two and give half away, making you homeless and you don’t get any say in it whatsoever. Then, many of the people you lived with were forced out of their homes so that someone else can live there. This forced eviction continues for years, but when you finally speak up against it, you are labeled as a terrorist and now the whole world thinks you are one. Also, the world sides with your oppressor, saying they have a right to defend themselves against you throwing rocks at them. I do not include Hamas in this scenario but civilians of Palestine.
